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You know what I mean - acts that you don't really understand why they're not your thing. You like a certain type of music and a bunch of bands that go with it but there are artists and bands that you don't 'get'. Or maybe bands that all your mates like and tell you to listen to, but they're not your thing. You've probably given them plenty of tries and maybe even pretended that you do like them. But sadly it just isn't happening.

My friends and music critics alike rave about these acts - who are of course all very established. I've given them all what feels like days of my time and they just don't float my boat. Don't hate them at all. Just a bit 'meh'.

It's exactly as you put it yourself. They're often highly praised for their songwriting ability, creativity and great production values - all things that I can appreciate, and all things that put them into the category of "bands I should like" - but it's just so dull and uninspired. They've been recommended by many people whose music tastes I often agree with, but there's no way I could ever get into such pretentious music. I'm sorry to have been so short before but the suggestion that you and the other guy weren't "listening hard enough" was annoying to me.

Got first album and liked it, second album had some bits that grabbed me, but since then everything else has grated to the point that I don't even go back to those albums. To me it's just all a bit for the sake of it, and "I can do this, so I will" kinda thing...and the big gasp before every line!

That was about the fourth time i'd seen them and the last. Stuff you Boris. Never has a drummer screamed so enthusiastically while hitting his giant stupid drum kit so softly. He might as well have been using a couple of nerf torpedoes it sounded that weak

I have got through a full listen of Two Dancers today, this is a break through of sorts. They are seemingly the only band I coming back to for another listen due to all the love they get, still struggling a bit with that voice.

I feel like I probably should like them because I'm a big fan of similar bands (I really enjoyed everything on Dark Was The Night apart from their input). I find them so dull. Loads of people I know rave about them and I've even seen people claim that they could 'easily' headline The Other Stage at Glastonbury.

Not a band, obviously. But I bought it on a whim on top of some other stuff. Listened to it two or three times, and haven't given a chuff about it since.

For an album including efforts from artists I'd previously enjoyed (like Buck 65, Stuart Murdoch, and Cat Power, Dirty Projectors, and David Byrne) there's a spectacular amount of utter meh on there.

Because I never really got into it I never really paid too much attention to who else in particular was on there (being an enforced mp3 purchase - gift voucher y'see). But I've just looked at the tracklisting and it reads like a thumbnail list of textbook DiS revered stuff that I've never really bothered to check out (and now know I was probably right notto bother with).

Stuff like Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, Conor Oberst, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Spoon... plus the couple of big 'uns that I have caved in on and given a chance, but who just don't measure up: The National and Arcade Fire.

are probably the most loved 'indie/alternative' type stuff I could never get into. Pixies especially, because while I don't actively hate them like I do Radiohead and the Smiths, they are really just bland and have I feel emotional connection with anything they've done. quite a few of my favourite bands are compared to them (eg Mclusky, Modest Mouse) but they just don't do anything for me at all

suppose I'll add the National (some potential but still bland), Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, and Grizzly Bear since they've had some of the most hyped releases of the past few years but are all painfully average at best. no edge at all

just seems to me like bland mainly mid-tempo alt rock with far too much use of that quiet loud quiet song structure that kinda irritates me. haven't really noticed the lyrics beyond the 'wacky' (is that what its meant to be? I'm not sure) stuff like Monkey's Gone to Heaven.

Pixie's lyrics are wacky but at the same time they're completely and utterly awesome on a base level. Here Comes Your Man is a wicked one, Wave of Mutilation is also awesome.

Plus they rock the fuck out on a couple of songs and even though they're not amazingly awesome musicians, it's raw as fuck and makes you feel fucking great. Listen to Tony's Song and try not to crack a smile; it's the obvious progenitor to Shit Luck by Modest Mouse and it rule.

They also do the quiet loud quiet schtick a lot better than other bands because they all have a great sense of dynamics. If you listen to the quiet chorus in Where Is My Mind? despite the rest of the band being restrained, the drummer is still fucking going for it. only band who does quiet loud quiet better is Mclusky.

By rights I should like them and all that they stand for etc, but they just bore me. The songs go on way too long and seem pretty repetitive. People slate bands like Editors for a portentous vocal but what about this guy Butler? It all seems quite pretentious.
Also, The National - they bore me. Dunno what all the fuss is all about.

I think though with anything there will be parts i like and parts that i have no interest in. Using your examples Bonnie Prince Billie - I see a Darkness is an amazing album IMHO and i like Superwolf and a couple of odd tracks otherwise its all a bit so so to me, and again LCD soundsystem about 3 tracks of the first album, and half of the second not too bothered about the rest.

I feel like they're a band I SHOULDN'T LIKE: guitar/bass/drums, very conventional, traditional 'song structures'. On the face of it, what's the difference between them and Coldplay or Keane or some bobbins like that? Just some dude crooning away while the anonymous guys with guitars jangle in the background. PAH.

But... I absolutley body and soul, head over heels, love them. They've released one ok record, one very good record and three phenomenal records. Brilliant live too.

Autechre, bar a couple songs like Eutow (cue collective sighs from A purists!), LCD Soundsystem - they just seem kinda bland. As much as I want to love The Flaming Lips, especially The Soft Bulletin, it just doesn't do it for me. I guess I don't "get it". The early Animal Collective stuff, though I think I'm getting there.

All the signs are I should at least appreciate them. I was a massive Stereolab fan, I have got into everything else Dave Pajo ever touched (apart from playing with Smashing fucking Pumpkins), I really liked so much of the Chicago scene they presided over, and I even see the presence of John McEntire as a positive sign on other bands' records.

But I have tried and tried with Tortoise down the years, even gave them another go when they played with Broken Social Scene last December. On the seventh effort, I still was unable to stomach a whole set of their turgid jazz wank. Off you jolly well fuck.

I've tried Junkyard when he was The Birthday Party and the production was just crap, couldn't get past it. I've also downloaded From Her To Eternity, popped on my nice headphones and it's still just so monotonous.

Good call on that one. They're often compared to the Replacements, whom I utterly adore, and they sound a bit like the Gaslight Anthem, whom I really like as well, but they just don't clock with me. I think it's down to the singer, he just sounds like such a smug wanker I can't empathise.

Terrible pretentious rubbish. Watching them gurning at each other on Jools Holland finally did it for me but having bought their album on strength of hype and having to turn it down as I was embarrassed the neighbours would hear maybe had something to do with it. What my mate Si calls a 'record shop band' ie recommended by people who work in indie record shops love.
Anyway getting set for day 2 of the Great Escape - if anyone's interested best stuff see so far were Sunns and French guy called Cascadeur who was utterly brilliant http://soundcloud.com/cascadeur

for me anyways, I've got the bands I've genuinely listened to and tried but can't 'get' people like Animal Collective and Ariel Pink and most stuff that Pitchfork rate well. I do feel sometimes I don't give albums long enough - but after the 43'rd listen is it worth it to persevere?

Worse are the bands who provoke violence when an adverse opinion is expressed against them - Beatles, Smiths, Bob Dylan are the biggest criminals. Boring.